Christina Mitchell

Professor Christina Mitchell trained as a physician scientist specialising in clinical haematology. She received her medical training from Melbourne University and consultant training in Haematology at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. Her advanced clinical training in Haematology included a Ph.D. characterising the natural anticoagulant protein C and protein S. Her post-doctoral studies were undertaken in the field of intracellular signalling in Prof. Phil Majerus' laboratory at Washington University Medical School, St Louis, USA. In 1991 she returned to Australia and became an independent investigator at the Department of Medicine, Box Hill Hospital. In 1999 she was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University. In 2006 Prof. Mitchell became Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University, which is the largest of the Schools within the Faculty of Medicine. The research-rich environment of the School is among Australia's best and the three recently opened modern Biomedical Sciences' precinct buildings are world class in quality and contain space for 800 researchers, providing a critical mass for the conduct of cutting edge medical research. In 2011 she was promoted to the position of Dean of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Professor Mitchell's work for the last twenty years has focussed on characterising the function of unknown genes that regulate cell proliferation and growth, and when mutated or deleted lead to human disease. Her research has been published in the best journals in the discipline, including EMBO Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature, Cell Metabolism, Cancer Research, Human Molecular Genetics and many others. Over the last 15 years Prof. Mitchell has received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Muscular Dystrophy Association (USA), Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Australia Research Trust and National Heart Foundation.